I haven't been producing for very long (about a year now) but I'm noticing that the tracks that I make are nothing like what I normally listen to. I've been a musician since childhood and come from a rock and blues background. However EDM has always been my favorite genre to listen to.

The genres that I'm interested in generally falls into the House, Trance, Techno...that kind of stuff. Most of the music I've been making so far falls into the Ambient, Downtempo, and Chillout genres somehow - stuff that I never use to listen to. I'm basically just starting to discover this genre of music!

So basically I'm making music that I'm not familiar with. I have no idea how that happened. Pretty weird huh?

This actually got me exploring other genres and studying/learning about genres in general which I think is pretty cool.

I'd say so. Most of the music I make isn't really music I'm familiar with, not much anyways. Rather, it's ideas that come from a combination of all the music I listen too and ideas that I'm interested in that I really want to let out. It's kind of weird but it's how I think.

Sometimes, I do go the extra mile and create something radically different but I don't generally share those tracks.

Sometimes I think it is a matter of skill as much as anything--I first got into making music to make neurofunk dnb. My skill level in many regards was lacking and for a long time I made music that was influenced by this genre, but didn't really sound like it. As my skills grew I got interested in dubstep and started being able to make some of the sounds in neurofunk, but wasn't interested in it anymore. Now I'm just trying to forge my own path and make all kinds of stuff.

As skill and tastes evolve you'll find your way. I think the best thing to do is enjoy the music you enjoy listening to and be true to your self when you sit down to write a song. I think its great that people love listen to a genre and can sit down and make it. My process has always been a bit more abstract. I always seems to get disracted. I rarely end up where I plan to writing electronic music.

What I am most interested in these days is less about a certain genre and more about the peculiar characteristics of programmed music--as I don't "play" any instruments in the traditional sense, but love twisting knobs to making evolving textures. I know a little theory, but am more intersted in timbre.

I'm as likely to listen to a a local "dad rock" band called The Speedbumps as I am Drexciya and sometimes both in the same day. I'm as likely to take a que from either as I sit down to write a tune : )

I went through a phase of that due to the availability of EDM sample packs and VST's; it was the same reason why I always ended up making reggae in Ejay clubworld. Personally, I've never given a flying fuck about either one.

This all tends to change if / when you play an instrument or get into hardware, but there's nothing wrong with experimenting way outside of your zone, either. In fact, this type of experimenting might lead you to getting into real instruments and things you can actually 'play' in an organic setting.

I went through a phase of that due to the availability of EDM sample packs and VST's; it was the same reason why I always ended up making reggae in Ejay clubworld. Personally, I've never given a flying fuck about either one.

This all tends to change if / when you play an instrument or get into hardware, but there's nothing wrong with experimenting way outside of your zone, either. In fact, this type of experimenting might lead you to getting into real instruments and things you can actually 'play' in an organic setting.

Maybe it's something about limits, but this seems to be true for me.

Getting into hardware was the game changer to me. It was a long/expensive process. I certainly wish I'd gone less crazy and gone less crazy not on credit. But I'm happy where I ended up. Having a few intruments where muscle memory comes into play and really getting to know an instrument phsyically as lead me down that "true to myself" path.

Not everyone needs to go spend 2k on a synth or anything. But these days the entry level even into hardware is pretty low. Not everyone needs to go hardware. But I think software, at some level, can lead a lot of us towards sample packs, presets, and paint by numbers music. The temptation is hard to resist when you get more instant, but ultimately less inpsired results.

Doesn't have to be analogue. I've owned a several digital hardware synths and liked all of them well enough. I happen to prefer analogue--but mostly because they tend to have less menu diving and have a knob-per-function as people say.

In the most literal sense, yes I am familiar with everything I make because I make it
I should hope I know what the heck is going on.

In the broader genre sense, I'm in the same boat as you, came up on rock/metal/punk and only discovered electronic music through my sega genesis and then had a renewed interest when I discovered Daft Punk and Justice in highschool. I listen to those guys and a handful of other bands and what gets put up in the LB, but that's about it for electronic music, I listen to the stuff I mentioned earlier way more often (listening to Hendrix right now!).

I made some stuff that was I-don't-know-what-this-is-or-what-I'm-doing early on, but have since dabbled in ambient (mostly for the sound design/mixing) and stuck mostly to stuff based on house.

Yes - as far as i can see not many people make the same type of music that i do. the stuff i end up making always ends up as some postmodern mashup of several different genres... plus all the stuff i really like is dead simple and i generally cant make that stuff.... im not brave enough to be as minimal as id like if you get what im saying....

im also influenced by ideas rather than genre like "what would a darkside drum and bass tune sound like if it were 130 bpm, had electro drum samples playing a slow mo jungle break" or what would a techno tune sound like with grime drums"

But being able to produce what is in your head, or knowing that what you want to produce when you sit down is what is going to come out ntakes a long time man - at yeast 5 or 6 years, if not more of hard slog... youll get there in no time man, your pretty dope already tbh...

I discovered early on in my career that I was a good musical mimic. Having done a fair bit of writing for stock music libraries, turning out everything from ambient, electronic to piano and orchestral, it was a useful asset. However, listening to music done by some real pros who were really GOOD at particular styles was strong confirmation of what I was and wasn't good at by comparison. I pulled in my wide net and focused more on the stuff I knew I could do better.

I Make Electronic music but come from acoustic type music. Classical, Jazz, etc. I think part of the allure for electronic music is that it combines some of my worlds together. The video game world, the scifi/fantasy world and the music world. I can't quite describe it but when I play around with electronic, I feel nostalgic. I find it interesting that you can have dance music that doesn't jive or have an urban feel. Its technically possible to have a dance song in electronic music that you can dance to but also get a sense of fantasy, wonder, etc. The only things a couple years ago I knew about electronic music were..... Rap,FUNK, disco, Vangelis because of COSMOS, the TETRIS song but to a 4/4 kick and a vague concept of techno. That was about it.

I don't make music that I'm not familiar with.
When I have a feeling, a mood, to make a music, I do not wanna waste that on something I'm not familiar with. Instead I make track I'm happy with. I don't experiment anymore. I feel like I grow into specific genre of music, that's my place, and there is way to much of sounds and exploration that's waiting me in my genre, I have no time for other genres

i look in the mirror every day and say who are you, watching my hands magicicly float in front of me doing idm producer magic idk even know what half this shit is or what it does and a mozart comes out of me

It's not too weird. There's a theory in TV and movies that people who work in comedy often go home and watch drama, and vice versa people who work in drama go home and just want to watch something that will make them laugh.

I play around at all sorts of things on the guitar and bass - everything from country and bluegrass to grindcore and death metal. When it comes to actually composing I'm pretty narrow. But then again noise/sound collage/musique concrete is pretty broad with a lot of room to move. Every now and then elements of jazz and classical composition creep in, even if they're not immediately recognizable.

I doubt I'll ever again make something that people would want to dance to. It's just not where my sensibilities or interests lie.

I don't really create much music anymore since being a mastering engineer but I have so I love mastering all types of music as I learn alot from each style/genre that I take into mastering other genres.

I very much have a stream of consciousness approach to music making. I rarely think of my tracks in terms of genres, which frees me up a lot from restrictions of structure, instrumentation, tempo etc. I always disliked how whenever there's a genre there's usually a bunch of devout listeners getting pissed off with something that doesn't conform to their idea of what it should be. So I often have no idea what genre I would assign to a track beyond vague terms like 'IDM'.
If you can listen to lots of different genres (it will always inform your work, whether you allow it to consciously or not) then create something different from what you've heard before then go for it, it will normally allow you to access a genre from a different angle than those who just want to replicate what they like listening to and make you stand out, which is always a good thing! When did you ever recommend an artist that sounded just like the 20 you listened to before?

Sort of. I want to produce music I have not heard ever before, yet I can't shake off some old tricks I keep repeating when producing something new. Can't try new things without stepping out of familiar stuff.

Yes, all the time because I am naturally restless and get bored of one particular genre (which is a pretty bad tendency as I'm trying to find my "sound"). In the future I expect that this will benefit me as I've learned a lot of things from particular genres that help me in others so when I "settle down" I think I'll be well-equipped